Curse of the Granville Fortune Page 15

  Chapter Fifteen

  I was exhausted from the previous sleepless night, but as tired as I was, I couldn’t relax enough to get any real rest. Those bears weren’t far from where we were camped, and even if the one burned into a pile of ashes, it still left two out there. That thought wouldn’t allow me to keep my eyes closed for too long. When I finally did shut my eyes, I had one of my visions, and I didn’t even try to sleep after that. I was actually happy when Morgan woke up at the first crack of dawn.

  He ran around, kicking his sleeping sons. “Get up! We need to get an early start. Today is the day we find my fortune!”

  Garret and Edward moaned, but they got up and put on their boots. Noelle sat up clumsily, her hands firmly tied behind her. Edward drew his knife and cut her loose. They whispered back and forth, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. The only one who wasn’t getting ready for another day’s search was Trent. He was asleep against the oak tree facing Holly and me. Morgan was too excited to notice Trent, but Garret saw him and stormed over. He smacked Trent on the side of the head with his canteen. The cap was loose and water splashed all over Trent’s face.

  “Ouch! What was that for?” Trent asked, wiping his face with his sleeve.

  “You fell asleep again! I’m not sure why Dad keeps you around at all. You’re worthless!”

  I elbowed Holly and smiled. Seeing Trent get in trouble almost made up for my hands being numb thanks to how tightly he’d tied them.

  Trent jumped to his feet and yelled in Garret’s face. “How do you expect me to search for the fortune all day and stay up to patrol all night?”

  “You weren’t supposed to patrol all night. You were supposed to wake Edward for the second shift!”

  “How do you know I didn’t? Maybe Edward fell asleep!”

  “Don’t lie to me!” Garret said, shoving Trent in the chest and knocking him into the oak tree.

  I stepped in front of Holly to shield her if a fight broke out.

  “What’s going on?” Edward asked as he walked over to Garret. Noelle tagged closely behind him. “Dad wants to get started. He won’t be happy if he sees you two going at it again and holding up the search.”

  Garret nodded. “This isn’t over,” he said to Trent and stormed off to his father’s side.

  Edward glared at Trent. “What’s in your hair?”

  I squinted at the chunky, white goo on the side of his head.

  “Oh, it’s owl poop,” Trent said, using his bandana to wipe the rest of the remains from his hair.

  Edward gave Trent a disgusted look, and he walked off to catch up with Garret and Morgan.

  “So that’s what woke you last night. You were sound asleep when we passed by,” I said, trying hard not to laugh.

  Trent’s eyes burned into mine, and his left eye twitched. He was clearly used to getting bossed around by his uncle and cousins, but he wasn’t handling me making fun of him, too. He reached into his pocket, and I backed up, afraid of what he might do. Luckily, Garret returned.

  “We’re almost ready,” Garret told Trent. “Remove their bandanas before we go. It’ll be too difficult for them to keep up if their hands are tied.” Out of nowhere, Garret turned to Holly and grabbed hold of Morgan’s jacket. “What happened to my father’s coat?”

  “Oh, I—” Holly looked to Trent for help.

  “You had something to do with this?” Garret accused Trent.

  “They tried to escape again last night. I had to get a little rough with the girl,” Trent said.

  Holly’s jaw dropped. I nudged her with my foot, warning her to keep quiet.

  “Fine. Keep a closer eye on them so they don’t try anything while we’re searching for the fortune. Dad won’t be happy if anything goes wrong, and you don’t want to have to answer to him,” Garret said, and he walked away.

  Trent cut the bandana from our wrists. He couldn’t have been any rougher about it, and I knew he was enjoying the pain he was causing us. I waited until he put his knife away before confronting him about what he’d told Garret.

  “If you get us in trouble with Morgan, we’ll tell him what really happened last night,” I said.

  “The only chance you had to get me in trouble with Uncle Morgan was if he caught us returning to camp last night. Now it’s your word against mine, and there’s no way he’d believe you over me. So I’d watch the tone you take with me, or you might have an unfortunate accident on our journey today.” I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Holly and me if he thought he could make it look like an accident.

  Holly gulped, and I was almost happy to see Edward walking back over to us.

  “Dad said you’re supposed to go on up ahead. I’m going to watch them,” Edward told Trent.

  Trent didn’t hide his disappointment, but he did what Edward told him. Everyone was ready to start the search again, so we headed toward the park to find the last piece of the treasure map.

  “I never should’ve trusted Trent to keep his word. I should’ve told Garret that I ripped the coat in my sleep,” Holly whispered.

  I looked at Edward to see if it was safe for Holly and me to talk. He was talking to Noelle again. His face was serious, and he was keeping his eyes straight ahead of him. He probably didn’t want his family to notice he was being nice to Noelle. At least Noelle was keeping him preoccupied so Holly and I could talk. “You can’t trust a thief,” I finally answered.

  “You can say that again.” Holly’s eyes dropped to the ground. No question about it. She was thinking about Dad.

  “We don’t know for sure if—” I didn’t want to mention Dad’s name in case anyone was trying to eavesdrop. “I mean, we don’t know what You-know-who is doing in the forest, so don’t jump to conclusions.”

  “He acted just like one of them!” Holly said, forgetting to keep her voice down.

  Garret glared at us from up ahead. “Shut up before I shut you up!”

  Holly and I bowed our heads and kept our eyes down. After a few minutes, Garret walked over to talk to Edward. Garret looked in my direction once before he and Edward got caught up in a conversation. Noelle stepped away from them.

  “What about Noelle?” Holly whispered. “I don’t get her at all.”

  “Me either. She’s getting pretty comfortable with Edward, but she tried to escape with us last night. It doesn’t add up.”

  “Talking about me?” Noelle whispered, coming up alongside me.

  Holly turned away, refusing to acknowledge Noelle’s presence.

  I took a deep breath and forced myself to say what I was thinking before I lost my nerve. “What’s the deal with you and Edward? You’ve been talking to him a lot.”

  Noelle raised her eyes to mine. “He’s different from the rest of his family. He’s nice, and he keeps Trent off my case.” She glared in Trent’s direction. “If he calls me sweetie one more time, I swear I’ll punch him.”

  I nodded. “Edward does seem different than the rest of them. Nicer.”

  “It’s hard to explain, but I know he wouldn’t hurt me or let the others hurt me either.” Noelle gave me a half smile and walked back over behind Edward and Garret.

  “I don’t like her,” Holly said, stepping closer to me.

  “You were eavesdropping?”

  “Oh, please. You’re standing right next to me. I’m not deaf.”

  Edward and Garret stopped talking, so I motioned for Holly to be quiet. We walked in silence for hours. Garret watched Holly and me so closely that even if we wanted to, we weren’t able to talk anymore. Our pace slowed. We were all getting tired of the search. Our feet practically dragged from boredom and exhaustion.

  Morgan noticed everyone’s attitudes and shouted, “This is a celebration! My fortune will soon be at hand! Let’s have a song!” He was the only one who was still excited about finding the fortune, but the others joined in and sang anyway.

  After four verses, I realized I was humming along. Holly gave me a dirty look and shook her head.

>   I shrugged. “It’s kind of catchy.”

  “Where do you think Dad is?” Holly asked.

  “Shh! Don’t talk about him in front of the others. Until we find out what’s really going on, we can’t let them know he’s our father.”

  “Don’t worry. They can’t hear us over their singing.”

  “I thought I told you two to shut up!” Garret said.

  “No, they can’t hear us,” I mumbled sarcastically. I turned to Garret and said, “We were singing along.”

  “You should be celebrating. It’s a wonder Dad’s letting you come along. It’s not as though you remember how to get back to the park.”

  I stiffened. I’d been hoping no one would notice that. “Actually, I remember passing through here. Don’t you, Holly?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Holly nodded, following my lead. “We’re definitely heading in the right direction.”

  I was trying to play along so Garret wouldn’t convince Morgan to get rid of Holly and me, and the sound of the growling wolf sticking his head out of the cave up ahead let me know that we really were retracing our steps.

  “What do you want us to do, Dad?” Garret asked. He stopped the group and stood face to face with the giant rock wolf. He held up his knife in defense. Edward was behind him, standing protectively in front of Noelle.

  “Get rid of it! That’s why we brought weapons!” Morgan said. He was at the back of the group now. Some fearless leader.

  “No!” I yelled. “That thing will mangle your puny little knives. We need something bigger and stronger.” I looked at the pile of rocks on the ground. “We need another rock wolf.”

  Holly wrinkled her forehead. “You can’t be serious! After what almost happened last time?”

  “Dad, what do you want me to do?” Garret asked more urgently.

  “Create another wolf,” Morgan said, looking me in the eyes. I was stunned but apparently not as stunned as the others.

  “You’re taking advice from him?” Trent asked.

  Morgan glared at Trent. “I’ve been hearing a lot of negative comments about you lately. You’re falling asleep on the job, questioning my orders, and speaking ill of our family’s fortune,” Morgan counted off on his fingers like he’d forgotten about the wolf that was ready to eat us all. “I’ll give you one chance to defend yourself, or we’ll be feeding you to the wolf.”

  I didn’t think wolves—even stone ones—understood English, but this one sure seemed to. It crouched low to the ground, ready to pounce.

  “The wolf’s going to attack!” I yelled, and I didn’t wait for a response. I stared at the pile of rocks and shouted, “Those rocks look like a giant wolf ready to attack one of its kind.” I hoped I’d chosen my words carefully enough. The forest could be pretty literal with its frightening creations. The pile of rocks shifted and rumbled as they reshaped into a giant—poor choice of words on my part—wolf in a low crouch. It let out a deep growl and lunged at the other wolf. Their jaws locked on each other, and pieces of rock flew everywhere. “Run!” I yelled.

  No one hesitated. We ran past the cave and didn’t look back.